


Caught Between

by ShalaDakiri (AJStarhiker)



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-25
Updated: 2011-07-25
Packaged: 2017-10-21 18:02:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/228045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AJStarhiker/pseuds/ShalaDakiri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Some days, he really hated his job." Inspired by mmooch's "Bright Eyes"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Caught Between

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Bright Eyes](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/3961) by mmooch. 



> Disclaimer: I don't own or make any money from this project.
> 
> BtVS belongs to Joss Whedon.
> 
> Related episode: "Ted"
> 
>  
> 
> This piece was inspired by chapter 2 of mmooch's story Bright Eyes

Some days, he really hated his job. Detective Stein couldn't do a thing about the real problems. Corruption from above and incompetence under made it difficult enough to investigate normal crimes, much less the bizarre and downright terrifying events that seemed to occur weekly in this town. He hated having telling families about the missing and dead while hoping his night shift didn't run into them.

Then, last year, an attack that normally would have left an entire club of teenagers dead or worse had been interrupted. By the time the police and paramedics had arrived at The Bronze, people weren't quite sure what happened. The clearest stories ranged from Supergirl flying through the ceiling to Sarah Conner running in from the back, guns blazing.

He thought they'd gotten lucky that night.

But it continued. People survived long enough to reach the emergency room--or didn't need it. Disappearances dropped. And bodies appeared that clearly were not human.

It didn't take long for the stories to filter through the reports. Most of the rumors and stories blatantly contradicted each other, but gradually Stein picked up on the more consistent details. Young, blonde, female, skilled at fighting. Patrol officers rarely caught more than glimpse of her; he heard most tales from off-duty or plain-clothes officers. Even they couldn't quite agree on her build, but the good ones (he had far too few of those) recognized her presence made surviving the night shift much more likely.

Still, he tentatively identified her as the daughter of the owner of that new art gallery. He'd even met them, when his wife dragged him to the shop's opening, not that he realized it at the time. The girl hadn't impressed him as anything more than a bored teenager roped into helping out for an afternoon.

Over the months, he began linking the young vigilante (although he wasn't quite sure that accurately described her) to more than a few odd occurrences. Most seemed to be interrupted 'muggings' and 'wild animal' attacks around town, but she'd also been tentatively linked to several incidences at the school. Incidences that would normally have been covered or passed off as unsolved.

 

The call came in near the end of his shift. Short on details, but the uniforms and paramedics who had arrived first didn't think it involved the weird stuff. Just a guy who fell down some stairs.

As soon as he saw the teenager huddled on the porch steps, though, he had a sinking feeling. He watched the paramedics wheel the body out to the ambulance. As he questioned the mother about the incident, he could tell she didn't want to say anything.

The reason became clear when the girl's quiet admission drifted over to them.

"I hit him." She sounded like she couldn't quite believe what she was saying, "I hit him."

Some days, he really hated his job.


End file.
